In Need
by IGottaFindYou
Summary: SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3 FINALE! Regina is reeling, and Mary-Margaret is determined. Outlaw Queen and Snow Queen Friendship


**OUTLAW QUEEN FOR THE WIN, PEOPLE! Some people have already lost hope in them, which is sad, because I will always cheer for them and I know that they are meant to be because Regina deserves a happy ending, and I truly believe with all my heart that Robin Hood is it for her. I've always loved Regina and Snow's relationship, too, no matter where it goes, and I love that they've come to be friends now. Which will probably change a bit at the beginning of season 4, but I know it will all work out. I think that's another reason that I wanted to include Snow in this story, because she's all about hope.**

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Mary-Margaret knocked on the door and waited.

Beside her, in his stroller, her three day – old son made a sound that sounded like a whimper.

"Oh, don't worry, sweetheart," Mary-Margaret soothed as she leaned over the stroller and looked in at her son. "Regina's a nice lady…now. She's just in a bit heartbroken. So we're gonna try to make her feel better."

She then straightened back up and stared at the door. "You're also here to protect Mommy if Regina's in one of her destructive moods," she muttered. "She has a soft spot for children, but her soft spot for Mommy is relatively new."

The door opened to reveal Henry standing on the other side. Even though Emma and David had both warned him that Regina may be better to have some time alone after what had transpired at Granny's the night before, Henry had objected and gone with his adoptive mother when she went home.

After over a year of living without him, and now suffering from having to see her new love reunited with his very LIVE wife, Henry knew that the last thing his adoptive mother needed was to be in that big house all by herself.

Mary-Margaret supported his decision completely, and had told David and Emma so. Emma, feeling the weight of her guilt (since it was her who had caused Marian's return to Robin Hood, and thus, Regina's heartbreak, and she knew she would never hear the end of the 'I-told-you-so's' from a certain pirate captain who had warned her not to change the past) and knowing that her mother and her son were right, told Henry that he could go, and that he could stay with Regina for a while, if he wanted.

Henry quirked an eyebrow when he noticed his new uncle.

"Why'd you bring the baby?" he asked.

"Well, I just thought he would be…helpful when I talk to Regina," Mary-Margaret replied, but her confidence in the idea was dropping by the second.

"If he is, it'd be a miracle," Henry told her, as he let her and the baby inside. "Mom hasn't come out of her room all morning. I went to bring her breakfast, but she wouldn't eat it, and she told me to close the door on my way out."

"Oh, Henry…" Mary-Margaret sighed, and put her hands on her grandson's shoulders "I'm sure Regina's glad to have you here with her. She loves you more than anything, you know that. She just – "

" – She loved him too," Henry finished.

"I'm sure she still does," she said. "But it's also because – of how angry she probably is, also."

"You mean…because she's angry at Emma."

His grandmother nodded. "Regina's changed, Henry. She's accepted that you're Emma's son, too. But with what's happened…it may seem odd, but I'm sure she's just doing this to be fair to you. I'm sure she'll come around soon."

Henry shrugged. "If you say so."

Mary-Margaret smiled and tapped Henry under his chin, then she took her baby boy out of his stroller, shouldered his diaper-bag, and headed up the stairs to Regina's bedroom – but not before asking Henry to put the stroller in the living room for her.

No matter what Regina said or did, she intended to be there for a while.

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Just as she had done with the front door, Mary Margaret knocked on the bedroom door and waited.

"…Regina?" she called softly through the door. "Regina, can I come in?"

There was no answer.

Mary-Margaret tried the doorknob, and surprisingly, it was unlocked. Taking a deep breath, and looking down at the baby in her arms for reassurance, she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

The room was completely dark, except for a few rays of sunlight that managed to shine through the curtains on the far side of the room, near Regina's bed.

Mary-Margaret put the diaper-bag on the floor, near the dresser, closed the bedroom door behind her, and she slowly began to make her way across the room to Regina's bed, where some sort of mass seemed to be lying still underneath the covers.

"Regina…"

"Go. Away."

"I brought Baby Neal with me," said Mary-Margaret. "You don't wanna kick him out, do you?"

"Only if you're here to ask me to baby-sit," the lump under the covers replied.

"I'm not."

"Then go away and leave me alone," the lump told her "…that's clearly how it should be, anyway."

"Regina, you are not destined to be alone!" Mary-Margaret argued as she walked to the other side of the bed and sat down in the empty space next to the Lump Formerly Known as Regina. Mary Margaret shifted little Neal in her arms so she could hold him with one arm and tug on the bed comforter with the other, so she could see Regina's face.

Regina made a sound that was similar to the whimper Neal had made minutes before while they had waited on the front porch. She pulled the covers back up, but Mary-Margaret just pulled them back down again.

"Why can't you just _leave me alone_…?!" Regina cried and ripped the covers back to get out of the bed entirely.

The noise clearly upset little Neal, who started to cry in his mother's arms.

Regina, now standing at the other side of the bed, groaned in frustration as Mary-Margaret rocked the baby and tried to quiet him.

"Get his dragon," said Mary-Margaret.

Regina was immediately puzzled.

"Excuse me?"

Mary-Margaret pointed to the diaper-bag sitting on the floor. "His stuffed dragon, David got it for him. He loves it, it's in the main pouch in the diaper-bag."

Regina sighed and went to fetch the plush dragon from the diaper-bag. She brought it over to Mary-Margaret and watched her smile at the baby and make the toy dragon dance for him…or maybe it was supposed to be flying, Regina honestly couldn't tell.

The tiny prince quickly settled down, so Mary-Margaret put the stuffed animal down next to her on the bed, and Regina started to get back under the covers.

"Now, if the excitement's all over, I'm guessing you'll be going now?"

"Regina…"

"You can show yourself out."

"Regina, please talk to me."

"About what?"

"Just…anything."

"If I had anything I _wanted_ to talk about, I'd talk to Dr. Hopper," Regina snapped, as she turned away from the other woman and settled into bed again, but not pulling up the covers this time.

"…Regina, she just wanted to save a woman's life. She didn't know it was Marian," Mary-Margaret spoke softly.

"Do you _know_ how many things are _wrong_ with that sentence?!" Regina screeched as she jumped up from the bed a second time.

Mary-Margaret immediately grabbed the plush dragon again and made sure the baby could see it before he got upset again.

"…She wanted to save a woman's life _in the past_!" Regina continued, and started to pace the carpet. "She didn't care what it would alter, and certainly didn't consider what it would do if she brought her _here_! She didn't give a single thought to the lives she could ruin _because she was too stupid to even ask the woman her name_!"

Suddenly, there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"…Mom?" Henry's voice called out from the other side of the door. "Is everything OK? Do you need anything?"

Regina didn't respond, she just sighed deeply and ran her hands over her face and back through her hair.

"We're fine, Henry!" Mary-Margaret called back. "Everything's OK, we're just talking."

"Um, OK," Henry replied, clearly unsure about what he should do. "Just…let me know if you need anything, OK?"

Mary-Margaret looked pointedly at Regina, and nodded toward the door.

"Thank you, sweetie," said Regina, loud enough for Henry to hear.

The boy was obviously pleased that he finally got a response from his mother, because the two women then heard padded footsteps going down the stairs.

"You think you're all alone, Regina, but you've still got Henry," Mary-Margaret told her. "And you've got me and David, whether you like it or not. And you've got Emma – "

" – To do what? Screw up my life even further?" Regina snapped. "How could she possibly do that?"

Mary-Margaret was silent for a moment, but it was clear she had one more thing to say.

"…And you've got Robin."

Regina froze where she stood and glared at the other woman.

"Get out."

"You didn't see him after you left Granny's last night, Regina. He looked so – "

"GET OUT!"

" – Confused! Regina, he's confused! He wouldn't be feeling that way if he didn't still care about you!"

"Please just take your damn baby and get _out_!" Regina sobbed as she rushed into her bathroom and slammed the door.

Mary-Margaret waited a moment, then she got up from the bed, grabbing the plush dragon to take with her. She walked across the room, put the dragon back in the diaper-bag, shouldered the bag, and opened the bedroom door.

"Henry!"

Like a shot, Henry came racing up the stairs. "What's wrong? Is she OK? Did something happen?"

Mary-Margaret gave him a gentle smile. "Everything's fine. I just need you to look after your uncle for a little while. Could you do that for me?"

Henry stared at her, then glanced down at the baby, bewildered. "Um, yeah, I guess. But are you sure everything's OK in there?"

Mary-Margaret nodded as she carefully put the baby in Henry's arms, then helped him shoulder the diaper-bag. "I'm looking after her, I promise."

Henry nodded, then turned and walked much slower down the stairs as he had done coming up. Mary-Margaret smiled at how cautious he was with his new uncle.

Mary-Margaret closed the bedroom door again and went back to sit on the bed.

"I got Henry to take Neal downstairs," she called out to the closed bathroom door. "So you don't have to worry about a noisy, fussy baby for the time being."

Just then, the bathroom door opened and Regina stood in the doorway and glared at her, but Mary-Margaret could also see how red her eyes had gotten, even more than before.

"The baby wasn't the one I had the problem with," Regina muttered, but walked back to lie on the bed, anyway; even though Mary-Margaret still sat in the space on the bed beside her.

This time Mary-Margaret did pull the covers up a bit around the other woman, but not so much so Regina could hide from her again. Regina even turned over to face her direction; but she wouldn't look at her.

Fresh tears were rolling down her cheeks. Regina sniffled and closed her eyes, as if that would stop the tears from falling. But it didn't, so Mary-Margaret gently wiped the tears away with her thumb.

"You're not alone, Regina."

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Review please and thank you!:)


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